Jed Dearing

Nominee for Standing Committee (clergy)

Please describe your participation in the life of your congregation, the diocese, and the larger community.

I’ve had the privilege to serve as Associate Rector at Trinity on Capitol Square since January of 2022. I enjoy co-creating opportunities with the vestry for community gathering, helping to strengthen the relational ties that were loosened as a result of the pandemic. The fruit of this work has been a renewed sense of communal care and shared mission among the parish. We have re-launched the In the Garden community meal as an in-person meal with worship, the only free hot lunch on Sundays in downtown Columbus. This has opened doors for us to extend our feeding ministry and advocacy on behalf of area homeless camps. I was honored to work alongside both the queer clergy and other clergy in Columbus to host Pride Mass at Trinity this past June. Trinity’s central location across from the Ohio statehouse make it an ideal gathering place for many organizations engaged in advocacy on behalf of the dignity of our most marginalized neighbors. I enjoy hosting these groups and witnessing to Jesus’ ministry to the least of these. Re-engaging with our downtown neighbors as a House of Prayer for All People has been a key part of my work as we’ve reopened during weekdays, offering daily worship at Noon and a new outreach service on the first Wednesday night of the month.

I currently enjoy serving on the Commission on Ministry (COM), as I also did from 2012 – 2015 as a layperson. Before discerning a call to ordination I was the Episcopal Service Corps (ESC) Program Director for Confluence Year, located at the time at St. John’s Town Street, where I worshiped for 9 years and served as both a lay preacher and formation leader. I also served as Interim Executive Director with ESC nationally before attending seminary at Church Divinity School of the Pacific from 2017-2020 which led to my call to serve with the devoted parishioners at St. Francis Springboro as Priest in residence from 2020-2022.

Why do you feel God is calling you to serve in this position?

I am passionate about the testimony to Jesus Christ that the Episcopal Church has to offer in Southern Ohio, and believe our Diocese is called for such a time as this. My past work with ESC, Praxis Communities and both my residency in Springboro and current call in Columbus have exposed me to how many committed followers of Jesus make up this Diocese. I’ve also seen the challenges that are faced by parishes throughout this Diocese, both small and large, as well as rural, suburban and urban. As a parent of two toddlers I’m passionate about shaping a church that will be vibrant both now and in the future, and shaping missional communities that engage the questions asked by those seeking God.

Standing Committee is key to this work. Our buildings matter to our mission, who we ordain matters to the shaping of our discipleship, and the care we give to clergy matters is care for the parishioners in the church. I look forward to bringing to the committee my experience in the ordination process, discernment with young adults, work on the national level, fresh expressions of the church and a passion for justice driven by Jesus. I commit to ask strong questions of the Bishop that call us to attend to the future God is calling this Diocese into.